1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a fundus camera for photographing a fundus of an eye of an examinee.
2. Description of Related Art
Conventionally, in fundus photographing using a fundus camera, rough alignment of a photographing part with an eye of an examinee is firstly performed while an image of an anterior-segment of the eye displayed on a monitor is observed, and then fine alignment of the photographing part with a fundus portion to be photographed is performed while an image of a fundus of the eye displayed on the monitor through display switching is observed. In recent years, a fundus camera having the function of automatically performing such alignment has been proposed (see Japanese Patent Application Unexamined Publication No. Hei8-275921 for example).
Incidentally, in a fundus camera of non-mydriasis type utilizing natural mydriasis of the eye, fixation of the eye tends to be unstable since brightness of a fixation lamp for fixing a visual line of the examinee (the eye of the examinee) is suppressed to such an extent that a pupil of the eye does not contract.
In the fundus camera having the function of the automatic alignment, even in the case of the eye of which fixation is unstable, alignment can be performed so as to bring about a state where display switching from the anterior-segment image to the fundus image becomes possible at the time when the fixation is temporarily stabilized. However, the fixation of the eye frequently becomes unstable again also after the display switching from the anterior-segment image to the fundus image. In such cases, for making a check of stability of the fixation and the like, it is sometimes more preferable to make display switching from the fundus image to the anterior-segment image. Alternatively, it is sometimes more preferable to perform switching from a mode for automatic alignment to a mode for manual alignment. In such cases, it is desirable to decrease the number of operations of switches and the like as much as possible.